The mage just stared fixedly into the wilderness.
“Tanis!” Alhana said suddenly, forgetting herself in her joy and putting her hand on his arm. “Maybe it worked! Maybe my father defeated them, and we can come home! Oh, Tanis-” She trembled with excitement. “We’ve got to cross the river and find out! Come! The ferry landing’s down around the bend-”
“Alhana, wait!” Tanis called, but she was already running along the smooth, grassy bank, her long full skirts fluttering around her ankles. “Alhana! Damn it. Caramon and Riverwind, go after her. Goldmoon, try to talk some sense into her.”
Riverwind and Caramon exchanged uneasy glances, but they did as Tanis ordered, running along the riverbank after Alhana. Goldmoon and Tika followed more slowly.
“Who knaves what’s in these woods?” Tanis muttered. “Raistlin-”
The mage did not seem to hear. Tanis moved closer. “Raistlin?” he repeated, seeing the mage’s abstracted stare.
Raistlin stared at him blankly, as if waking from a dream. Then the mage became aware of someone speaking to him. He lowered his eyes.
“What is it, Raistlin?” Tanis asked. “What do you sense?”
“Nothing, Tanis.” the mage replied.
Tanis blinked. “Nothing?” he repeated.
“It is like an impenetrable fog, a blank wall.” Raistlin whispered. “I see nothing, sense nothing.”
Tanis stared at him intently, and suddenly he knew Raistlin was lying. But why? The mage returned the half-elf’s gaze with equanimity, even a small, twisted smile on his thin lips, as if he knew Tanis didn’t believe him but really didn’t care.
“Raistlin,” Tanis sail softly, “suppose Lorac, the elfking, tried to use the dragon orb-what would happen?”
The mage lifted his eyes to stare auto tile forest. “Do you think that is possible?” he asked.
“Yes.” Tanis said, “From what little Alhana told me, during the Tests in the Tower of High Sorcery at Istar, a dragon orb spoke to Lorac, asking him to rescue it from the impending disaster.”
“And he obeyed it?” Raistlin asked, his voice as soft as the murmuring water of the ancient river.
“Yes. He brought it to Silvanesti.”
“So this is the dragon orb of Istar.” Raistlin whispered. His eyes narrowed, and then he sighed, a sigh of longing. “I knew nothing about the dragon orbs,” he remarked, coolly, “except what I told you. But I know this, Half-Elf none of us will come out of Silvanesti unscathed, if we come out at all.”
“What do you mean? What danger is there?”
“What does it matter what danger I see?” Raistlin asked, folding his hands in the sleeves of his red robes. “We must enter Silvanesti. You know it as well as I. Or will you forego the chance to find a dragon orb?”
“But if you see danger, tell us! We could at least enter prepared-” Tanis began angrily.
“Then prepare.” Raistlin whispered softly, and he turned away and began to walk slowly along the sandy beach after his brother.
The companions crossed the river just as the last rays of the sun flickered among the leaves of the aspens on the opposite bank. And then the fabled forest of Silvanesti was gradually swamped lay darkness. The shadows of night flowed among the feet of the trees like the dark water flowing beneath the keel of the ferry book.
Their journey was slow. The ferry-an ornately-carved, flat-bottomed beak connected to both shores by an elaborate system of copes and pulleys-seemed at first to be in good condition. But once they set foot on board and began to crass the ancient river, they discovered that the ropes were rotting. The boat began to decay before their eyes. The river itself seemed to change. Reddish-brown water seeped through the hull, tainted with the faint swell of blood.
They had just stepped out of the boat on the opposite bank and were unloading their supplies, when the frayed ropes sagged and gave gray. The river swept the ferry boat downstream in an instant. Twilight vanished at the same moment, and night swallowed them. Although the sky was clear, without a cloud to mar its dark surface, there were no stars visible. Neither the red nor the silver moon rose. The only light came from the river, which seemed to gleam with an unwholesome brilliance, like a ghoul.
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